Batch Rename Files on Disk?

[Jerry Hofmann]

There’s not an automatic way to do this… however if you cannot remember the old names, open the “view source” column in the Browser to show you what the newly named clips in the Browser are using as a source file….

Better workflow is to NOT change the name from the original, and use a another column for new information about the clip…. like a comment column. You can move these right next to the name too by draging the header over, or deleting it, then adding it back in another place.

Jerry

[Arnie Schlissel]

The only way to do this is to use a unix command in the terminal. Sorry, I don’t know the command syntax, but I’m sure you can look it up via google.

Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com

[Arnie Schlissel]

Forgot to add- you’ll have to reconnect all your clips by hand after you rename them all. Are you sure you want to rename them?

Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com

[Nick Meyers]

Yes, Virginia, there IS a way to do it…

Media Manager!

Select all your clips in the browser
Open MM

Use MOVE mode
DONT delete unused
Base Media File Names on: CLIP NAMES
BROWSE to a location on the SAME drive the files are already on.

when you hit OK,
the files get moved from the folder they are currently in:
Your Original Capture Scratch Location/Capture Scratch/Project Name
to a new folder:
Nominated Browse Location/Media/Project Name

and they adopt the CLIP names in the process.

as they are not moving from one drive to another, it only takes a few sconds
(if you have the files spread over more than one drive, open the source column in the browser and sort by that, Media Manage in batches determined by drive)

NOTE:
if you have already started cuting, and have clips in the timeline, this proecess may well result in the timeline clips going offline.
only thing you can do then is to manualy recnnect one by one.
this *might* be avoided (i’m guessing) by quiting FCP after you do the process.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

slightly OT, but my favourite batch re-naming app is R-Name:

https://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14404

cheers,
nick

[Steven Gonzales]

I’ve done this before with applescript.

1) got to applications-applescript- and open the script editor application

2) create a new script, and hit record. Rename a test file and you will see the script:

tell application “Finder”
activate
set name of document file “file old name” of folder “test quicktimes” of disk “Sata1” to “file new name”
end tell

3) open text edit, then make another script in Scripteditor to get the current file names for your quicktimes and put them into textedit, then run this new script:

tell application “TextEdit”
activate
set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to return
try
set the text of the front document to (list folder (choose folder) without invisibles) as string
end try
set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to “”
end tell

4) export a batch list from final cut with all the final cut names.

5) now you have all the info you need. In excel (or some other program) open the batch list from final cut. Get rid of all the columns except the name column.

6) cut and paste the list of quicktime names from text edit into excel in another column.

7) Using text to columns in excel, and cutting and pasting, manipulate each line in excel until they match the applescript renaming format.
All the first column cells would say — set name of document file ” —
all the second column cells would be the old names
all the third column cells would say — “of folder “test quicktimes” of disk”Sata1″ to ” —
all the fourth column cells would be the new names
and all the fifth column cells would say — ” –.

In the last column, concatenate all the columns into one, which is a properly formatted rename command. (The formula would be — =A2 & B2 & C2 & D2 & E2 — This last column would be what you could cut and paste into your applescript.

8) paste this list of rename commands into an applescript and run.

This seems a lot more complicated than it actually is.

[Lu Nelson]

Thanks!

Actually, once I posted the question, I figured it was a media manager thing. I think one might even choose “Use existing” rather than “Move”? Anyway, I’m sure “Move” will work.

To clarify: the reason I asked is that I’ve found that if I have footage with single or double quotes in either the clip name (in the browser) or the file name (on disk) it won’t work properly with the “Send to Motion Project” command. The additional quote characters bascillay corrupt the XML file that FCP outputs for the send.

So, I’m using this to fix problems with that particular workflow…

[Nick Meyers]

“I think one might even choose “Use existing” rather than “Move”?”

yes that might work.
i don’t use “use existing” though
that;’s mainly for when you want to reduce your project to just the parts used in the cut.
really what that’ll do is make a copy then delete the original (but it’s kind of invisible).
problem is if something goes wrong you;re up the creek
i MUCH prefer to use COPY mode, then CHECK that it worked,
then delete the original myself.
that’s just me, tho (actually, no it’s not.. it’s a few people!)

however it probably *would* have the same result in this case.

“I’ve found that if I have footage with single or double quotes in either the clip name (in the browser) or the file name (on disk)”

i dont know enough about Motion to comment.

but if you haven’t cut anything to a timeline yet,
you;d be just as well off doing this with a re-name application.
drop all the files into R-name, for instance,
delete first character is one operation,
delete last character is another.
pretty simple really.
then drag them all back into FCP.
who cares if the original lot of browser ones go offline,
you’ve got the new ones!

hope that helps,
nick

[Siencynl]

media manager doesn’t like ‘use existing’ if you’ve taken multiple subclips from one piece of media. You end up with one long clip that has trimmed top and tail, the gaps between the subclips are still there.
More pertinently for you it also won’t rename media files unless you tell it to move or copy them.